Chinese Cinderella

Have you ever felt frustrated when facing some insurmountable tasks, like finishing a big project in a week or making a speech without enough practice time? No wonder the above-mentioned problems are difficult to tackle. But it is also a hard fact that we need to live with difficulties, no matter what. If you don’t want to sit there and do nothing like a bunch of pampered kids, here is a story that might inspire you.

The book “Chinese Cinderella” caught my eye when I came across it randomly in the school library. The picture of the girl in the corner was nothing more to be compared with the beautiful and amicable in my mind. So I read a few pages out of curiosity. After that I was totally engrossed in this book. It is a biography about a girl, Adeline Yen Mak who was persevering throughout her terrible childhood. Though she had been a clever and courteous girl since she was a child, she was considered unlucky as her mother died when giving birth to her. As a result, her family didn’t treat her well, she needed to face loneliness and isolation. Reading up to this you may think that her life was full of pain. Obviously there was no friendly fairy coming out and lending her a hand to overcome the obstacles, just like what they did to the original “Cinderella”, and maybe she should give up her life. But she didn’t, she struggled for acceptance within her family. Finally, against all odds she proved herself to her family.

I think her perseverance is very remarkable. She persisted in proving herself and worked very hard to get what she wanted. As everyone knows, Adeline Yen Mak is a famous writer now. In the story, Adeline had a dream that she could study at a university in England since wanted to explore the field of literature. Despite the rejection that her father preferred her to go to medical school, she joined an international play-writing competition in order to gain the opportunity to go to a college in England. Finally she won first prize in the competition, she actually achieved something she had been longing for! Nowadays, youngsters have been so lazy and cowardly that they are unwilling to deal with different tasks. For example, people complain that many fresh graduates don’t take any responsibility for their mistakes and just quit their jobs easily. If we learn how to motivate ourselves to reach our ultimate goal then we are able to become more and more successful.

Moreover, I think Adeline was very independent because she could take care of herself since she was young, her step mother, sibling, or even her father didn’t like her, so she had to face many unfair issues in her daily life. I forgot how many times I felt sympathy for her when she’s ill-treated by “Niang”, I really wish I could be there to stand up for her. But no one will help her when she messed up she needed to face them all by herself. Nevertheless, she was forced to become independent. Her family wanted her to marry a man and finish her life as a wife without any achievement, Adeline didn’t go along with this. Instead she fought with her willingness, objecting the family’s ideals. Finally she won the freedom to live in a way that she wanted and she could be the controller of her whole life.

Quite differently from Adeline, we live in a protective environment and we don’t need to think about, or face any problems. This makes us become over-pampered and we are very vulnerable when facing adversity. We cannot even make our own decisions frequently. This will definitely delay our maturity. So I hope her story will inspire you to get rid of your vulnerable personality.

To be an asset in our society, it is vital we improve from our bad habits, otherwise this will put us in a critical condition which jeopardizes our prospects. I think no one will like a person who is fragile or indecisive, right? Sometimes it is understandable that we want to give up, but we should also remember that failure is a part of life, there is no shortcut to success. We ought to learn from what Adeline showed us. I highly recommend this book to you if you want to be self-motivated. Change yourself in a positive way from now on!

(This book report was the 2nd prize in 2015-2016 Book Report Competition Senior Section )